I heard once that men don’t tend to collect photographs of their friends and former lovers the way women do. Instead, men tend to collect things for their memories. T-shirts, gifts, and other ephemeral are what men hang on to instead of photos. From where I’m sitting in my living room I can see the tumbler that came with the first bottle of Scotch I ever bought on my 21st birthday, the vertebrae I found in the prairie around Laramie, WY when I was there for a debate camp with my friend Josh, and the sleeping domo kun toy my friend Pam gave me. If you are of a similar turn of mind, does this habit add more fuel the already well stoked fire that you are “mannish” in your outlook?

I also recently read that people with more bumper stickers on their cars experience more road rage. The suggestion was that the more bumper stickers you have, the more you’re “marking your territory” and thus the angrier you get when it is threatened or violated. I see it as a sign of progress for humanity because bumper stickers smell a lot better than piss.